Here
is a first-person account of the Great Shohola train wreck, in which 52
Confederate prisoners of war died in Shohola, Pennsylvania. Frank Evans, a
Union Guard, wrote it.

"It
was about the middle of July in 1864. I was in the Union Army, and was one of
the guards of 125 soldiers who were detailed to take a lot of Confederate
prisoners from Point Lookout, Virginia (ed note: It was really Point Lookout,
Maryland) to the prison camp at Elmira, New York, which had just been made
ready to receive them. There were ten thousand prisoners in all to be
transferred, and this lot was the first installment to be moved. There were
about 800 of them.

Two
guards were stationed on the platform at each end of each car. We got started
from Jersey City about 5 o'clock in the morning. I was one of the guards
stationed well back on the train, and a lucky thing it was for me that I was
so stationed.

We
passed through the little village of Shohola in the after noon, going
something like twenty-five miles an hour. We had a run a mile or so beyond
Shohola, when the train came to a stop with a suddenness that hurled me to
the ground, and instantly a crash arose, that rivaled the shock of battle,
filled that quiet valley. This lasted a moment. A second or two of awful
silence followed it, and then the air was filled by the most appalling
shrieks and wails and cries of anguish.

I
hurried forward. On a curve in a deep cut we had met a heavily laden coal
train, traveling nearly as fast as we were. The trains had come together with
that deadly crash. The two locomotives were raised high in the air,
face-to-face against each other, like giants grappling. The tender of our
locomotive stood erect on one end.

The
engineer and firemen, poor fellows, were buried beneath the wood it carried.
Perched on the reared-up end of the tender, high above the wreck, was one of
our guards, sitting with his gun clutched in his hands, dead!

The
front of our train was jammed into a space less than six feet. The two cars
behind it were almost as badly wrecked. Several cars in the rear of these
were also heaped together.

There
were bodies impaled on iron rods and splintered beams. Headless trunks were
mangled between the telescoped cars. From the wreck of the head-car,
thirty-seven prisoners were taken out dead. The engineer of our train was
caught in the awful wreck of his engine, where he was held in plain sight,
with his back against the boiler, and slowly roasted to death.

That
frightful accident occurred about 2 p.m., Friday, July 15, 1864. The cause of
the accident was a drunken telegraph operator at Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania,
four miles west of the scene of the disaster. The official report of the
killed that were buried, places the number at fifty-one Confederate and
nineteen Union soldiers.

At
9 p.m., a train was sent from Port Jervis with provisions and due to the
kindness of the railroad officials, a New York Tribune reporter was permitted
to visit the scene. Upon their arrival at Shohola around 10 p.m., they found
most of the wounded had been brought to the village and were occupying the
freight and passenger rooms and adjoining platforms. Over sixty injured lay
in this locality and several more in the Shohola House [hotel].

The
citizens of Shohola and Barryville [New York; across the Delaware River from
Shohola] were untiring in their efforts to alleviate the sufferings of the
wounded. Men, women and children vied with each other in their acts of
kindness. "After viewing the wounded and suffering victims, and having
no reason to remain," the Tribune writer, "we passed out among the
guard and prisoners who had come through this unhurt. We were now on our way
to the actual spot where the collision had taken place."

A
trench 76 feet long and 8 feet wide was dug, in which to bury the bodies and,
according to the Elmira Advertiser, there were 48 Confederate and 17
Unionists buried there. But there are a variety of estimates as to the exact
number of casualties, depending on the source.

During
an inquest held at Shohola, everyone connected with the wreck was exonerated,
including Duff Kent, who gave the coal train the right-of-way. He should have
known the train carrying the prisoners was on the track. Persistent reports
say that he was a drinker and could have been under the influence of alcohol.
He did not take the wreck very seriously and according to a story, which
circulated, he went to Hawly to attend a dance. The next day the public
became so incensed with his actions that Kent left for parts unknown and was
never heard from again.

The
following day the track was cleared and a new train made up to take the
prisoners and some of the injured to Elmira. During the night, a heavy guard
was placed around the Southerners. Despite this, however, five managed to
escape.

According
to Art Meyers of Narrowsburg, who personally interviewed an old woman many
years ago that lived in Yulan at the time and recalled going to Shohola to
view the wreckage when she was a very young girl. On the way she and a girl
companion encountered two strange men who apparently were escaped prisoners.

The
dead from the wreck rested in their common grave located between the tracks
and the river for 47 years. They were then exhumed in 1911 and taken to
Elmira and reburied in the Woodlawn National Cemetery with others from the
prison camp. Captain Charles W. Fento, 2nd Cavalry, A.D.C. was in charge. He
contacted C. E. Terwilliger, a Port Jervis undertaker. Fred I. Terwilliger,
prominent Port Jervis businessman, recalls furnishing boxes for the bodies.
Captain Fenton reported to Chief Quartermaster at Governor's Island that 60
bodies were removed. It is apparent that the Delaware River waters washed
five of the bodies out.